Dear friend,

At Animal Wellness Action, we want to elevate the protection of animals in American policy-making and in politics.

The two fields are intertwined. You cannot secure good policies without doing the political spadework and electing lawmakers morally alert to animal welfare.

You’ve heard from me many times about our issue-based elections work, with the highlight of that work in this election cycle being Proposition 127 in Colorado to halt the trophy hunting and commercial trapping of native wild cats in the state.

Today, I want to tell you about our candidate election work.

In the run-up to our national election, we have issued countless endorsements of candidates seeking office. And like no other organization in our field, we also are executing independent expenditure campaigns to elect allies of animal protection and to eject from public offices our sworn adversaries.

We have nine television advertising campaigns either to support anti-animal politicians or to elect or re-elect game-changing advocates for animals.

Animal welfare should never be the project of a single political party. If it is, our work is doomed to fail, given the parity that exists in American politics at the national level between Democrats and Republicans. We must win support from Democrats and Republicans, and we treat every lawmaker fairly.

When Democrats lead on animal welfare, we back them. The same is true when Republicans lead on our issues. In short, we call balls and strikes on animal issues. If we don’t zero in on our issues and demand accountability on our issues alone, no one else will.

Today, I’ll tell you about two races where we are investing: one to oust the leading anti-animal welfare politician in Congress, and the other to re-elect one of the best pro-animal lawmakers in Congress.

Defeating Duarte/Electing Adam Gray in California’s 13th Congressional District

Republican Congressman John Duarte has not co-sponsored a single animal welfare bill this Congress, despite more than 70 such bills being introduced across a range of bipartisan policies, from cracking down on animal fighting and puppy mills to ensuring humane testing of drugs and cosmetics.

It’s hard to imagine that Duarte couldn’t find it in his heart to support even one of the 70 animal welfare bills in the entire 118th Congress, such as the FIGHT Act. Indeed, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the National District Attorneys’ Association are our partners on the legislation, with more than 750 other endorsers!

But instead of cosponsoring FIGHT, Duarte has cosponsored the EATS Act (H.R. 4417) to overturn Prop 12 in his own state! Prop 12 is the most important farm animal welfare law in the nation, passed by voters in 2018 and requiring that eggs, pork, and veal sold in California come from farms, no matter where they are, that do not rely on immobilizing cages and crates for animal housing.

Duarte’s EATS Act would federally overturn Prop 12 and other state laws that shield farm animals from extreme confinement. A legislative priority for the Chinese-owned factory farming company Smithfield Foods, the EATS Act would not only return pigs and laying hens to extreme confinement, but also threaten the livelihoods of California family farmers who have invested millions of dollars in new, more humane animal housing systems in response to Prop 12.

The California law was explicitly upheld as constitutional by a bloc of conservatives and liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court, with the opinion penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee.

Adam Gray nearly beat Duarte two years ago, losing by barely more than 500 votes. With our advertising campaign, we are looking to influence the votes of thousands of Republicans and Democrats to dump Duarte and to elect Adam Gray, who publicly opposes the EATS Act. You can watch our ad here, Defeat Duarte and Reject Chinese Control of American Agriculture.

We shouldn’t allow China to drive agriculture policy in the United States and overturn U.S. elections, including the landslide election favoring Prop 12. I am confident that Adam Gray will stand in the way of Smithfield Foods and its federal policy goal to preserve the most extreme forms of animal confinement in America.

Re-Electing Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District

Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick is one of the most independent and thoughtful members of Congress, and I see that in his work on the Hill every day on animal welfare.

Earlier this year, Rep. Fitzpatrick stood up to his party’s leaders by opposing two bills they brought up for votes on the House floor that would have been disastrous for wildlife. The first bill (H.R. 764, led by Lauren Boebert) would have stripped Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across much of the lower 48 states, opening the door to trophy hunting and commercial trapping. Such a policy might also expose wolves to being recreationally run over with snowmobiles — a practice that came to light earlier this year in Wyoming.

Rep. Fitzpatrick also bucked his party’s leaders by voting against a bill (H.R. 615) to restrict land management officials from regulating the use of hazardous lead ammunition on public lands and waterways. Every year, ingested spent lead poisons millions of wild scavenger species, including our nation’s iconic bald eagles. You can watch our ad for him here.

Rep. Fitzpatrick also is the lead author of the Puppy Protection Act and the Kangaroo Protection Act. He’s working to guide these bills to passage, and he’s an original cosponsor of the FIGHT Act (H.R. 2742), the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 (H.R. 7248) to promote humane testing in drug development, the Greyhound Protection Act to phase out greyhound racing in the United States, and the Minks in Narrowly Kept Spaces (MINKS) are Superspreaders Act (H.R. 7670) to address the public health threat posed by domestic mink farming by banning this method of factory farming.

In the prior Congress, Rep. Fitzpatrick was the leader of the Big Cat Public Safety Act — signed into law by President Biden — that halts the trade in big cats, including cubs, sold at roadside zoos. He also was a key leader of the original FDA Modernization Act to eliminate an animal testing mandate for drug development.

We Must Support Pro-Animal Lawmakers

In short, if we are serious about passing national legislation to help animals, we must have lawmakers in Congress who are fighting for animals.

Animal Wellness Action is diving into the messy world of politics because we must do so to make progress for our cause of stopping cruelty to animals in all of its forms. I can assure you that the trophy hunting lobby, the factory farming lobby, and other sectors determined to continue their exploitation of animals are engaged politically. If we don’t meet them on that stage, we’ll never see major policy gains for animals.

When you support Animal Wellness Action, you are supporting the effort to pass ballot initiatives to help animals and to elect candidates to create a more humane-minded Congress and more caring state legislatures.

I cannot think of any investment more important for animal welfare than investing in AWA and our political work. I hope you will give generously today.

Elections matter.

Please give generously today.

For all animals,

Wayne Pacelle President Animal Wellness Action